USC Must Give Philip Morris Health Study Data, Says Judge

Capping a bruising legal battle waged by cigarette makers in at least 10 courts, a federal magistrate in Los Angeles has ordered USC to give Philip Morris Cos. confidential data from a landmark health study on secondhand smoke.

U.S. Magistrate Jeffrey W. Johnson gave university researchers 30 days to produce the raw data from the federally funded Fontham study, which served as a basis for the government’s conclusion that secondhand smoke causes lung cancer.

Philip Morris had sought the data to defend itself in a lung cancer case filed by former Nevada casino worker Robert Murphy. But USC had resisted the subpoena on grounds that subjects in the study were promised confidentiality, and that breaking the pledge would discourage future participation in critical health research.

“We’re very concerned that an order like this will chill the willingness of cancer patients to participate in studies, because universities in California can no longer promise that the information they provide will be considered confidential,” said Scott Edelman, a lawyer for USC.

But Philip Morris had vowed not to identify or contact subjects in the study. And as a safeguard, Johnson ordered the university to redact names, addresses, telephone numbers and other personal information before delivering the data.

The Fontham study compared secondhand smoke exposures of nearly 2,000 nonsmoking women in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, New Orleans and Atlanta, including 653 with lung cancer and 1,253 who were cancer-free. It concluded that secondhand smoke raised lung cancer risks about 30%.

Since 1994, cigarette makers had been battling for access to the data, issuing subpoenas to participating institutions including the University of Texas, and the California Department of Health Services, in addition to USC.